Activity 4 Phonemes and Graphemes

1. Read the following excerpt from the Common Core State Standards for English
Language Arts Appendix A.
2. Explain how this information helps illuminate complexity choices for both reading
and writing instruction.

Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences
Consonants
Common graphemes (spellings) are listed in the following table for each of the consonant
sounds. Note that the term grapheme refers to a letter or letter combination that corresponds to
one speech sound.

Consonant Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences in English

Common Graphemes
Phoneme Word Examples (Spellings)
for the Phoneme*

/p/ pit, spider, stop p

/b/ bit, brat, bubble b

/m/ mitt, comb, hymn m, mb, mn

/t/ tickle, mitt, sipped t, tt, ed

/d/ die, loved d, ed

/n/ nice, knight, gnat n, kn, gn

/k/ cup, kite, duck, chorus, folk, quiet k, c, ck, ch, lk, q

/g/ girl, Pittsburgh g, gh

/ng/ sing, bank ng, n

/f/ fluff, sphere, tough, calf f, ff, gh, ph, lf

/v/ van, dove v, ve

/s/ sit, pass, science, psychic s, ss, sc, ps

/z/ zoo, jazz, nose, as, xylophone z, zz, se, s, x

Updated 11/9/11
Common Graphemes
Phoneme Word Examples (Spellings)
for the Phoneme*

/th/ thin, breath, ether th

/th/ this, breathe, either th

/sh/ shoe, mission, sure, charade, precious, notion, sh, ss, s, ch, sc, ti, si, ci
mission, special

/zh/ measure, azure s, z

/ch/ cheap, future, etch ch, tch

/j/ judge, wage j, dge, ge

/l/ lamb, call, single l, ll, le

/r/ reach, wrap, her, fur, stir r, wr, er/ur/ir

/y/ you, use, feud, onion y, (u, eu), i

/w/ witch, queen w, (q)u

/wh/ where wh

/h/ house, whole h, wh

*Graphemes in the word list are among the most common spellings, but the list does not include
all possible graphemes for a given consonant. Most graphemes are more than one letter.

Vowels
Common graphemes (spellings) are listed in the table (see page 3 of this section) for each of
the vowel sounds. Note that the term grapheme refers to a letter or letter combination that
corresponds to one speech sound.

Updated 11/9/11
Vowel Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences in English

Common Graphemes
Phoneme Word Examples (Spellings)
for the Phoneme*

// see, these, me, eat, key, happy, chief, either ee, e_e, -e, ea, ey, -y, ie, ei

// sit, gym i, y

// make, rain, play, great, baby, eight, vein, they a_e, ai, ay, ea, -y, eigh, ei, ey

// bed, breath e, ea

// cat a

// time, pie, cry, right, rifle i_e, ie, -y, igh, -i

// fox, swap, palm o, wa, al

// cup, cover, flood, tough u, o, oo, ou

/aw/ saw, pause, call, water, bought aw, au, all, wa, ough

/. vote, boat, toe, snow, open o_e, oa, oe, ow, o-

took, put, could oo, u, ou

moo, tube, blue, chew, suit, soup oo, u_e, ue, ew, ui, ou

/y/// use, few, cute u, ew, u_e

/oi/ boil, boy oi, oy

/ow/ out, cow ou, ow

er her, fur, sir er, ur, ir

ar cart ar

or sport or

*Graphemes in the word list are among the most common spellings, but the list does not include
all possible graphemes for a given vowel. Many graphemes are more than one letter.

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Phonological Awareness
General Progression of Phonological Awareness Skills (PreK1)

Word Awareness (Spoken Language)

Move a chip or marker to stand for each word in a spoken sentence.
The dog barks. (3)
The brown dog barks. (4)
The brown dog barks loudly. (5)

Rhyme Recognition during Word Play

Say yes if the words have the same last sounds (rhyme):
clock/dock (y)
red/said (y)
down/boy (n)

Repetition and Creation of Alliteration during Word Play

Nice, neat Nathan
Chewy, chunky chocolate

Syllable Counting or Identification (Spoken Language)

A spoken syllable is a unit of speech organized around a vowel sound.
Repeat the word, say each syllable loudly, and feel the jaw drop on the vowel sound:
chair (1) table (2) gymnasium (4)

Onset and Rime Manipulation (Spoken Language)

Within a single syllable, onset is the consonant sound or sounds that may precede the vowel;
rime is the vowel and all other consonant sounds that may follow the vowel.
Say the two parts slowly and then blend into a whole word:
school onset - /sch/; rime - /ool/
star onset - /st/; rime - /ar/
place onset - /pl/; rime - /ace/
all onset (none); rime - /all/

General Progression of Phoneme Awareness Skills (K2)

Phonemes are individual speech sounds that are combined to create words in a language
system. Phoneme awareness requires progressive differentiation of sounds in spoken words
and the ability to think about and manipulate those sounds. Activities should lead to the pairing
of phonemes (speech sounds) with graphemes (letters and letter combinations that represent
those sounds) for the purposes of word recognition and spelling.

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Phoneme Identity
Say the sound that begins these words. What is your mouth doing when you make that sound?
milk, mouth, monster /m/ - The lips are together, and the sound goes through the nose.
thick, thimble, thank /th/ - The tongue is between the teeth, and a hissy sound is
produced.
octopus, otter, opposite /o/ - The mouth is wide open, and we can sing that sound.

Phoneme Isolation
What is the first speech sound in this word?
ship /sh/
van /v/
king /k/
echo /e/
What is the last speech sound in this word?
comb /m/
sink /k/
rag /g/
go /o/

Phoneme Blending (Spoken Language)

Blend the sounds to make a word:
(Provide these sounds slowly.)
/s/ /ay/ say
/ou/ /t/ out
/sh/ /ar/ /k/ shark
/p/ /o/ /s/ /t/ post

Phoneme Segmentation (Spoken Language)

Say each sound as you move a chip onto a line or sound box:
no /n/ /o/
rag /r/ /a/ /g/
socks /s/ /o/ /k/ /s/
float /f/ /l/ /oa/ /t/

Phoneme Addition (Spoken Language)

What word would you have if you added /th/ to the beginning of ink? (think)
What word would you have if you added /d/ to the end of the word fine? (find)
What word would you have if you added /z/ to the end of the word frog? (frogs)

Updated 11/9/11
Phoneme Substitution (Spoken Language)
Say rope. Change /r/ to /m/. What word would you get? (mope)
Say chum. Change /u/ to /ar/. What word would you get? (charm)
Say sing. Change /ng/ to /t/. What word would you get? (sit)

Phoneme Deletion (Spoken Language)

Say park. Now say park without /p/. (ark)
Say four. Now say four without /f/. (or)

Orthography
Categories of Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondences

Consonant Graphemes with Definitions and Examples

Grapheme Type Definition Examples

Single Letters A single consonant letter can b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s,

represent a consonant t, v, w, y, z
phoneme.

Doublets A doublet uses two of the ff, ll, ss, zz

same letter to spell one
consonant phoneme.

Digraphs A digraph is a two- (di-) letter th, sh, ch, wh

combination that stands for
ph, ng (sing)
one phoneme; neither letter
acts alone to represent the gh (cough)
sound. [ck is a guest in this category]

Trigraphs A trigraph is a three- (tri-) -tch

letter combination that stands
-dge
for one phoneme; none of the
letters acts alone to represent
the sound.

Grapheme Type Definition Examples

Consonants in blends A blend contains two or three s-c-r (scrape) th-r (thrush)
graphemes because the
c-l (clean) f-t (sift)
consonant sounds are
separate and identifiable. A l-k (milk) s-t (most)
blend is not one sound. and many more

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Silent letter combinations Silent letter combinations use kn (knock), wr (wrestle),
two letters: one represents the gn (gnarl), ps (psychology),
phoneme, and the other is rh (rhythm), -mb (crumb),
silent. Most of these are from -lk (folk), -mn (hymn),
Anglo-Saxon or Greek. -st (listen)

Combination qu These two letters, always quickly

together, usually stand for two
sounds, /k//w/.

Vowel Graphemes with Definitions and Examples

Grapheme Type Definition Examples

Single letters A single vowel letter stands for (short vowels) cap, hit, gem,
a vowel sound. clod, muss
(long vowels) me, no, music

Vowel teams A combination of two, three, or (short vowels) head, hook

four letters stands for a vowel.
(long vowels) boat, sigh,
weigh
(diphthongs) toil, bout

Vowel-r combinations A vowel, followed by r, works car, sport, her, burn, first
in combination with /r/ to make
a unique vowel sound.

Vowel-consonant-e (VCe) The vowelconsonantsilent e gate, eve, rude, hope, five

pattern is common for spelling
a long vowel sound.

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Six Types of Written Syllable Patterns

Syllable Type Definition Examples

Closed A syllable with a short vowel dap-ple

spelled with a single vowel
hos-tel
letter ending in one or more
consonants. bev-erage

Vowel-C-e A syllable with a long vowel compete

(Magic e) spelled with one vowel + one
despite
consonant + silent e.

Open A syllable that ends with a program

long vowel sound, spelled with
table
a single vowel letter.
recent

Vowel Team Syllables that use two to four beau-ti-ful

letters to spell the vowel.
train-er
con-geal
spoil-age

Vowel-r A syllable with er, ir, or, ar, or in-jur-ious

(r-controlled) ur. Vowel pronunciation often
con-sort
changes before /r/.
char-ter

Consonant-le An unaccented final syllable dribble

containing a consonant before
beagle
/l/ followed by a silent e.
little

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Three Useful Principles for Chunking Longer Words into Syllables
1. VC-CV: Two or more consonants between two vowels
When syllables have two or more adjacent consonants between them, we divide between the
consonants. The first syllable will be closed (with a short vowel).
sub-let nap-kin pen-ny emp-ty
2. V-CV and VC-V: One consonant between two vowels
a) First try dividing before the consonant. This makes the first syllable open and the vowel
long. This strategy will work 75 percent of the time with VCV syllable division.
e-ven ra-bies de-cent ri-val
b) If the word is not recognized, try dividing after the consonant. This makes the first syllable
closed and the vowel sound short. This strategy will work 25 percent of the time with VCV
syllable division.
ev-er rab-id dec-ade riv-er
3. Consonant blends usually stick together. Do not separate digraphs when using the first
two principles for decoding.
e-ther spec-trum se-quin

Morphemes Represented in English Orthography

Examples of Inflectional Suffixes in English

Inflection Example

-s plural noun I had two eggs for breakfast.

-s third person She gets what she wants.

-ed past tense verb We posted the notice.

-ing progressive tense verb We will be waiting a long time.

-en past participle He had eaten his lunch.

s possessive singular The frogs spots were brown.

-er comparative adjective He is taller than she is.

-est superlative adjective Tom is the tallest of all.

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Examples of Derivational Suffixes in English
Derivational suffixes, such as -ful, -ation, and -ity, are more numerous than inflections and work
in ways that inflectional suffixes do not. Most derivational suffixes in English come from the Latin
layer of language. Derivational suffixes mark or determine part of speech (verb, noun, adjective,
adverb) of the suffixed word. Suffixes such as -ment, -ity, and -tion turn words into nouns; -ful,
-ous, and -al turn words into adjectives; -ly turns words into adverbs.
nature (n. - from nat, birth) permit (n. or v.)
natural (adj.) permission (n.)
naturalize (v.) permissive (adj.)
naturalizing (v.) permissible (adj.)
naturalistic (adj.) permissibly (adv.)

Updated 11/9/11